Winter Olympics: Chinese President Xi Jinping says Beijing will deliver ‘safe and splendid’ Games, IOC chief bemoans ‘boycott ghosts’
- Addressing International Olympic Committee via video message, Xi says world is ‘turning its eyes to China and China is ready’
- IOC president Thomas Bach criticised ‘the dark clouds of the growing politicisation of sport on the horizon’
The Beijing Olympics, which officially begins on Friday, will be streamlined, safe and splendid, Chinese President Xi Jinping has said, as the head of the IOC decried boycott ghosts “rearing their ugly heads again” over human rights concerns.
Addressing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session in the Chinese capital on Thursday via a brief video message, Xi said China had played an active part in the Olympic movement since staging the 2008 Summer Olympics.
For these Winter Games the country had engaged 300 million Chinese in winter sports as promised, he said.
“From ‘One World-One Dream’ in 2008 to ‘Together for a Shared Future’ in 2022, China has taken an active part in the Olympic movement and consistently championed the Olympic spirit,” he said.
“The Olympic Winter Games will open tomorrow evening. The world is turning its eyes to China and China is ready. We will do our best to deliver to the world a streamlined, safe and splendid Games.”
Beijing will become the first city to host both summer and winter editions of the Olympics but preparations have been hit by diplomatic boycotts and the coronavirus pandemic.
The United States, Britain and some other allied countries have staged a diplomatic boycott of the Games over allegations of human rights abuses in China.
